“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” Albert Camus

Saturday, 3 May 2014

ASOIAF by George R.R.Martin

When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.

This is by far my most enjoyable post ‘cause A Song of Ice and Fire series has become for me a real windfall. Martin’s books are dope! I had tons of very pleasant reading evening and I remember those times with the sweetest nostalgia.

It is hard to decide what to begin with but I begin
with how I discovered the series. As many of us I discovered it through the TV
series Game of Thrones. Firstly I really liked the story, but the scenes of
violence were too hard for me so I stopped watching since ep2s1. But then I decided
to pluck up my courage and continue watching. And I’m really happy I did it. Thanks
to my stubbornness I’ve got the whole new magical world. Not Middle-earth,
Harry Potter world or Neverland but still it has its interesting sides.

I should pay tribute to the writing style. Martin’s word cuts deeper than swords. He shows that this game is real, we are terrified to turn the page. His characters are real – here they are, alive, breathing, on the pages, you just need to touch. He uses words for different styles correctly. It’s seems so easy for him to change from thoughts of 11yo girl about dresses and knights to depressing thoughts of a dwarf or heroic bastard’s thoughts. You can easily guess whose exactly chapter you are reading. Sansa always has a second to think about the right accessories for her dress even in the hardest of times. WhilsthersisterAryadoesn’twasteasecondohthat. Thethoughtsofdeath, dangerandtheopportunitytosurviveoccupyher. Cerseithinksaboutherchildrenhalfofthetime. The other half of time she thinks about how great she is. Ned is always honorable – in thoughts as well as in deeds. Lannister brothers Tyrion and Jaime are both basically misunderstood. Frankly speaking, it would be interesting to read Taywin, Varys or Littlefinger thoughts. Butitwouldruinalltheintrigue. Characters are constantly growing, showing us newest sides of them. You wouldn’t find in the series positive or negative characters. Only white or black. There are shades of grey in them as in real people. There’s a sin behind each righteous man and misunderstanding behind each sinner. And it’s one of the things which make this series unique.

In spite of all the realistic characters the plot
itself is really twisted. Youcannotpredictitstwists. You can find lots of forums where people discuss different
thoughts and theories and it’s really fascinating. All the people have such different
opinions and impressions. Many of them remember something you’ve missed and it’s
interesting to return to the book and reread this place, rethink it.

I can’t give less than 5/5 to these wonderful books. Of
course, the last two are less dynamic, but it doesn’t make them worse.